


Researcher's Nightmare

by fangirlingingeneralidk



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Supernatural
Genre: Horror, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Long Pause Between Updates But I'm Back, Minor Character Death, Self-Harm, Tags Contain Spoilers, Violence, for better or worse, please don't read this if it makes you uncomfortable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 12:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11990217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirlingingeneralidk/pseuds/fangirlingingeneralidk
Summary: Sam encounters the Silence. He wants to find out more about them, but how can he look them up when he can't even remember what he's researching? Rated Teen to be safe because later chapters will get pretty dark (see tags).





	1. Meeting

It began like any other hunt. Sam had found evidence of paranormal activity in some small town in the middle of nowhere; Dean had driven them out there in the Impala while blasting his music as loudly as possible; they'd used fake ID's to investigate; they'd figured out the creature's next attack and were waiting for it armed with the usual salt and iron. Sam took one exit, Dean the other.

Then Sam saw it. And it didn't match any description he'd found of the thing they were expecting.

"I'll have to make a note of that," he mumbled, eyeing the thing. It was weird, even for someone in his line of work. Whatever it was, it wore a suit, like it was trying to pass for human, but its face--strangely elongated and stretched-looking, forming a point with no mouth visible--made that impossible. Its sunken eyes stared at Sam.

He knew better than to look away from anything that could kill him, so he maintained eye contact as he slowly lifted his gun, preloaded with rock salt.

But as he was about to fire, he heard Dean yell, "Sammy! It's here!" and a bang that told him Dean had fired his own weapon.

Two monsters in one place? How bad could their luck be?

"Here too!" Sam yelled over his shoulder, but in the second he looked away from the thing in front of him his head went fuzzy.

Dean ran into the room. "I got it, it's dead," he said. "That beastie won't be bothering this town anymore. Did you say something?"

"No," said Sam. "Good thing it went to your side. Better you than me. But doesn't it normally go for pretty girls?"

"Very funny," Dean grumbled. The boys continued bickering as they left the building. Sam glanced behind them for a last look and jumped.

The suited thing was standing on the porch, looking at him.

"Do you see that?" Sam asked, tapping Dean's shoulder and pointing. He looked at Dean.

"See what?" Dean turned his head, but all he saw was the porch.

"What?"

"You just asked me if I saw something, what?"

Sam frowned. "No, I didn't."

Now it was Dean's turn to frown. "Uh, yeah, you did. You feeling okay, Sammy?"

"You hearing things, Dean?" Sam retorted. He walked on, shaking his head. "C'mon, I'm tired. Let's get back to the hotel."


	2. Morning

Sam woke up in the hotel room alone. He didn't know where Dean was, probably in some other bed. That didn't concern him. What did was the creature standing over his bed. He yelled.

Sam lunged for the phone sitting on the night table so he could take a picture, and promptly forgot why he had picked it up. He looked around in confusion and spotted some...thing wearing a suit.

"Why do I keep forgetting you?" he asked in disbelief. "Every time I look away- that's it, isn't it? I forget when I look away. Well then, I won't."

Keeping his eyes on the thing, he operated the phone blindly, hoping he was navigating its menus correctly. When he thought he had reached the camera program, Sam lifted the phone, careful not to block his line of sight, and took a few quick photos.

"Gotcha," he said. "And now…"

He closed the camera and sent a message to himself, typing by memory while maintaining constant eye contact with the creature: _Check camera roll. Monster in suit. Don't look away._ When he was done he pressed Send. "Here's hoping that worked…"

He braced himself and tore his eyes away.

Sam blinked and stretched. Where was Dean? Ah well, time to get dressed. He stood and reached for his clothing. Just then his phone made the sound that meant it was receiving a text. He picked it up.

Sam frowned. The text said it had been sent from his number, but that couldn't be right. He opened the text.

 _Check camera roll. Monster in suit. Don't look away._ It was gibberish, but he did as it said, opening the folder of pictures on the phone.

It was this hotel room, the room he was in right now, only there was a _thing_ \- a monster in a suit, like the text had said- in there too. He checked the clock in the background on the wall and his blood ran cold. This picture had been taken only a minute ago.

He scanned the room and quickly caught sight of it, though it had moved across the room to the corner. "What do you want? What are you? Why are you following me?" The questions poured out.

"Silence," hissed the thing.

"So you can talk," Sam said, not sure if he should be relieved or more worried that he was dealing with something intelligent. Experience told him to be worried. _Better scared than scarred_ had been drilled into him since he was small. "Start talking, then."

"Silence," it repeated.

"Is that your name?"

There was no reply. "I'll take that as a yes anyway," Sam said. The Silence, characteristically, neither confirmed nor denied his assertion.

"If you won't answer my questions, I'll have to do it myself." He crossed the room, not looking away for even a millisecond, and picked up his laptop. He set down his phone, with the pictures open, facing him on the table, so every time he looked at it he'd be reminded what he was doing.

It struck him that the Silence had made no move to attack him in any way. But where _was_ Dean? What if it was more than his usual nighttime escapades? What if the Silence had taken him or hurt him?

"Where's Dean?" he asked the Silence. He did not expect a reply, and he did not get one. "Have you done something with him?"

At that moment his phone rang. Sam picked up without looking.

"I'm coming back, which room are we in?"

"Dean! Thank goodness, listen, there's something in the room and every time I look away I forget it. Get over here!" Sam gave Dean the room number and hung up.

"Backup is on the way," he said, more to himself than to the unresponsive monster standing next to the door. "Time to start research."

Sam opened the laptop and typed into the search engine what he knew of the Silence. Nothing. It was like the internet had forgotten them as well.

"Sammy! You okay?" Dean burst in.

"Next to the door!" Sam said quickly. "Don't look away from it or you'll forget it too. I've got pictures."

"Sam, there's… there's nothing in here."

"You looked away!"

"No, I… there's really nothing here." Dean's voice was confused, but not like he had forgotten something important. More like he was worried about Sam. Sam had heard that tone many times before; he knew its sound. "The room is empty. Just us."

"It must have left," Sam said, keeping the phone in his peripheral vision as he looked around and confirmed that the Silence was gone.

"If you say so," Dean said skeptically.

"You don't believe me," Sam said flatly. "Well, I have pictures."

He thrust the phone at Dean, who took it and looked at the photos with wide eyes. "What? What is it? Hey, is that my phone?" Sam wanted to know what Dean was looking at.

"Man, that thing is ugly," Dean said, passing it back to Sam. In the moment neither of them were looking at it, Sam turned the screen off and set the phone on the table.

"So were where you and how drunk did you get that you didn't remember the room number?" Sam asked, putting his arms on his hips.

"C'mon, Sammy, don't mother hen me," Dean said, flopping onto the bed and crossing his arms under his head. "I had a great time and I'm ready to kick some monster behind. Got anything new?"

Sam sighed and checked the laptop. It was open to searches about… Something that made you forget it? He didn't remember searching for anything of the sort. _But then,_ he realized, _I wouldn't, would I?_

"Just one thing," he said, "but you'll have to come here. It's not something you can explain in words…"

There was a sticky note, hastily scrawled, that told him in his handwriting to check his phone's camera. He opened it and sent the photos to Dean's phone as well.

"I call it the Silence," he said. "That's all it says."

"Time for our weirdest hunt yet," said Dean. "How do you fight what you don't know is there?"


	3. Arguing

But all their research came up short. Even with the decision to always have the picture within view of one of them, it was hard to avoid looking away, and there were often moments when their research was interrupted by an unfortunate glance.

And even within their uninterrupted spans of time when they researched without distraction, nothing could be found. None of their sources said anything about the mysterious silent beings.

"New monster?" mused Dean. "Do we get naming rights? Because I have a few choice suggestions."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Priorities, Dean?"

"So how do we find these things?" Dean demanded. "They don't exist, except that we've both seen them. They don't do anything except stand there looking creepy."

"We have to find out more about them," Sam insisted.

"But how?"

"I have an idea, but you're not going to like it."

"I never like your ideas." Dean crossed his arms. "Shoot."

"Well… they seem to be following me," Sam began.

"No way," said Dean immediately. "I see where this is going, and we're not leaving you as bait to wait for a bunch of mystery monsters to come get you."

"I'm not completely helpless, Dean!" Sam snapped, annoyed. "Obviously I'll be ready to defend myself. But they appeared to me when I was alone. So maybe if we let them come to us, instead of chasing them, we'd have a better chance of finding out more about them."

Dean scowled. "I don't like it, Sammy."

"I said you wouldn't, but even you've got to see it's the only way that makes sense."

"It makes no sense! You're setting a trap by falling into a trap! I won't let you do this, Sam, and that's final."

"Who put you in charge?" Sam was stung.

"Me!" Dean stormed out of the room, leaving Sam to brood and plan his next move… without his big brother hovering overprotectively.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg I haven't updated since September I am so sorry this story just did not want to be written but it is here now and ch5 should be coming eventually I hope you enjoy the update please review I'm going to bed it is 1:22 am

Sam spent the next three days hiding his research from Dean. Meanwhile Dean was examining newspapers for another case, but he didn’t seem too eager to move on. (The bartender was very pretty.) Sam didn’t mind; it meant he could continue doing as he pleased.

 

But he could not find anything. As he had suspected, anyone who came into contact with this thing forgot it too quickly to share information. It was up to him. Sam created a hasty website with the picture he’d taken and the name of the town. It was of poor quality, and the site was hardly the best he could do, but time was of the essence. Who knew what this thing could be up to while he had lost track of it?

 

Within hours his website had a reply. i know this thing, wrote an anonymous user. i saw it and then i forgot??? do you know why????????

 

Sam hit reply and paused. What could he say that didn’t sound crazy? Meet me at the library, he wrote finally. 5 pm. I’ll explain there.

 

He closed the laptop and then frowned. What had he just been doing? Whatever it was couldn’t have been too important, though, or he wouldn’t have forgotten it, right? He pushed it out of his mind. For some reason, he had an urge to go to the library at 5 pm. Maybe something was going to happen? Sam had learned to trust his intuition, and so he followed this feeling.

 

By five o’clock, he was waiting by the library with his bag, watching each person who walked by, trying to guess what had brought him here. Most people just eyed him strangely. To these he gave an awkward half-wave. Others steered clear of him. He couldn’t blame them; a tall stranger loitering outside a library was a little odd. Only one person headed straight for him.

 

“Do you know… I mean, I kind of have this feeling that… I just needed to be here, now? Are you waiting for me?” asked a teenage boy. He scowled at Sam, but it was for show; Sam knew his type, the boys who would put up a front of toughness as a defense mechanism. He’d grown up alongside one of them, after all.

 

“I had the same feeling,” Sam said, turning to open the door. “Maybe I am waiting for you. I’m Sam. Let’s go inside and find a table, and we’ll see what’s going on.”

 

“Evan,” said the kid. “Since you didn’t ask.”

 

Sam glanced over his shoulder at Evan. “I figured you might want to remain anonymous, stranger danger and all… But it’s nice to meet you, Evan.”

 

Evan half-smiled, half-shrugged. Sam had a moment of suddenly recalling of being a teenager himself. Before he turned seventeen, before he left for college, before he’d fallen out with John and lost touch with Dean. Just a normal kid hunting monsters and saving lives and, like every kid, desperate to get away.

 

Then Evan pushed past him to get into the library and the moment passed. Sam rolled his eyes and muttered, “Kids these days.” He laughed at himself briefly--did he really just say that? how old was he, sixty-three?--and then followed, catching up to Evan with his longer strides.

 

“This is the best spot to get a table,” Evan informed him, “where there’s no one around and you can hear yourself think. Just turn up the music in your headphones and…”

 

“Everything else disappears. Just you and the sound.” Sam nodded. He’d done the same more times than he could count, especially during his first semester of college, when he had so badly needed to escape his problems and worries and hurts. He imagined every teenager did something similar. Evan was no exception.

 

Evan looked up at him. “Yeah.” And there was the first real smile he’d given Sam.

 

“Well, take a seat. I don’t know why we’re here. Let’s see if we can’t figure it out.” Sam pulled his laptop out of his bag and opened it, typing in his password with a rapidity born of muscle memory. The screen he’d closed it on reappeared and everything made sense all at once.

 

Evan gasped. “That! That thing! I saw it, and I wrote that message, the reply, and then you said to come, and--”

 

“And here we are,” Sam said. “We’d forgotten it. Again. But somehow the instructions we were given remained implanted in our subconscious, and we followed them unthinkingly. That’s… interesting.”

 

Sam became aware that Evan was staring at him. “Interesting. Seriously.”

 

Sam shrugged. “Look, I get that it’s unusual, but my life has seen plenty of weirdness already. This isn’t that far out of the ordinary.”

 

If Evan’s eyes widened any more, they would fall out of his head. “You’ve seen stuff like this before? No way! Like what?!”

 

Sam sighed. “Sorry. I can’t tell you too much. My brother would kill me.”

 

“Yeah, I get that,” Evan said, scowling again. “My brother’s like that too.”

 

Sam offered Evan a sympathetic smile. “If it helps,” he said, “your brother probably isn’t years older but inches shorter than you.”

 

Evan tipped his head, confused. “Why would that be worse?”

 

“The jealousy fuels his wrath,” Sam said, whispering to give the information a sense of confidentiality. “He’s constantly annoyed, and that makes him much worse.”

 

The laugh Evan gave in response was cut off as a shadow fell over the table. “Sammy,” Dean said, in a low voice. “What are you doing here? I thought we agreed you were done with this whole research business?”

 

“Dean, this is Evan. Evan, Dean. My brother.”

 

“You didn’t answer my question.” Dean folded his arms. Evan pulled away, retreating into the corner of the space, but Sam laughed.

 

“You’re not scary, Dean.” Then to Evan: “He’s all bluster. Don’t let him fool you with that attitude of his.”

 

“I’m waiting.” Dean wouldn’t back down.

 

“Have a seat, Dean, come blow off some steam. You need to chill. What happened, the girl from the bar find someone better?”

 

From the dirty look that got him, his guess was a little too close. Evan snickered.

 

Dean harrumphed and walked off in a huff. Sam shrugged. “Well, now that he’s gone…” They turned back to the screen.

 

“What do we do?” Evan asked, in a hushed voice. “You said you’ve dealt with stuff like this before, right? What do we do?”

 

Sam thought quickly. “Alright, here’s the plan. We’ve got to lure this thing out. It seemed to be following me before, maybe it will again. I can’t take too much from the trunk or Dean will notice, but I can probably sneak a knife and maybe a gun. Can you shoot?”

 

Evan smirked. “Can I shoot? I’m a teenage guy in the midwest. Of course I can shoot. What kind of gun?”

 

“I don’t know yet. We don’t even know if bullets can hurt this thing, if they need to be silver or iron or salt or what... We’ll start with iron, always a safe bet. So if you’re taking the gun that means I’ll take the knife.”

 

“Wait, why am I getting the gun if you’ll be left with just a knife? You’re the one with the gun, you must know how to use it better than me, why don’t you take it?”

 

Sam shook his head. “I appreciate it, but no. The gun’s better protection. I know I can handle myself. I’m not putting a kid up against whatever that thing is with nothing but a knife.”

 

Evan argued for a little longer but eventually conceded. They continued forming the plan, all the while looking at the Silence’s photo. Sam hoped what they were saying would stay with them, even if the details and reasons would blur.

 

“So I’ll meet you at the… what did you call it?”

 

“The official name is the Henry S. Morgenfeld Building, but that’s not important, it’s just one of those big empty buildings at the edge of town. No one knows why they’re still there. I think they were supposed to be knocked down? I don’t think anyone is sure why they weren’t. Anyway, no one’s ever there except the squatters, so it should be perfect for a monster hunt!”

 

Evan was excited in a way that Sam could barely remember feeling. Surely there had been a time when he was that enthusiastic for hunting? But all he could remember was resentment and abandonment.

 

“Great. See you then.” He tried to smile and he tried to hope and he tried to ignore the sense of uneasiness he could feel growing behind his sternum. None of them really worked, but he could pretend. That’s what he always did, after all. Smiled and faked it and moved on to the next disaster. He could only wish this wouldn’t turn out the same way.


End file.
